Major Crimes Investigation Agency Task Force to Start Work April 30; HQ Lease Considered

A governmentwide team set up to prepare for the launch of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency, due to open in October, will begin full operations at the end of this month. 

The government said on April 28 that the preparatory team will open an office on April 30 at the Changseong-dong annex of the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno District and start work. 

The 64-member team will be built around the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the prosecution service. Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae will lead it, and a sitting prosecutor will serve as deputy chief.

While Kim oversees Interior Ministry work including planning, organization, AI government, local autonomy and local finance, the deputy chief is expected to manage the team’s day-to-day operations, including preparations for the new agency.

Fifteen officials, including staff from the Government Buildings Management Office, will be seconded from the Interior Ministry. The prosecution service will send more than 30 people, including prosecutors and investigators, and the National Police Agency will provide seven. Officials from the Ministry of Personnel Management and the budget office will also join.

Through the agency’s opening on Oct. 2, the team plans to handle broad preparations, including office space, hiring, investigative procedures and internal operating systems.

Because the new agency will effectively take on the prosecution service’s investigative role, some had expected it to use existing prosecutors’ office buildings. That option is not being considered, the report said. 

The agency’s headquarters is said to have a policy of not using buildings now occupied by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office or the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. Officials are reviewing a plan to lease a building first and later move into a newly built facility. For a temporary office, they are checking conditions at two buildings in the Euljiro area of Seoul.